š Side Story: Echoes of the Mind
The trial had endedābut the echoes still lingered in their minds.
š¹ 1. Lyra Fenholt ā Rank 22, Dorm Valiant
Lyra stood amidst a blazeāher childhood village burning around her. The sky bled crimson, and ash rained like snow. Flames devoured the homes of people she once knew, but what made her knees weaken were the faces within the fire. Her parents. Her little brother. Her former teacher. All reaching toward her with accusing eyes.
"You left us," one voice hissed.
"You ran away," cried another.
"No," Lyra whispered, stepping back. "Iā¦ I couldn't have saved you."
But she had trained for yearsāfor moments like this.
"No," she said again, this time with conviction. "You're not real. I didn't run. I survived."
She unsheathed her dagger, the one she swore never to use unless necessary. She gripped it tightly and sliced the image of her brother, watching it dissolve like ash in wind. One by one, the figures faded, and the fire died down.
Lyra woke up drenched in sweat. Her hands shook. But she was aliveāand she remembered her promise: Never freeze again.
---
š¹ 2. Cain Vernhardt ā Rank 87, Dorm Ignis
Cain's trial was silent. No fire. No blood. Just mirrors.
Hundreds of them.
Each reflection showed a different version of himself. One was crying, one laughing maniacally, another drenched in blood. They spoke not with voices but through his thoughtsāamplifying every doubt buried deep within.
"You're just a monster waiting to lose control."
"No one respects youāthey fear you."
"You'll never be more than your rage."
Cain felt the fire stirring inside him. It clawed at his throat, begged to be let out. His fists ignited, his eyes glowing amber, and he punched mirror after mirrorāshattering them in a fiery storm.
But each one he destroyed was replaced by two more.
He dropped to his knees, exhausted, surrounded by fragments of himself.
Thenā¦ he heard a different voice.
Softer. Quieter. His own.
"I am more than this. I can be better than this."
He stood up slowly, fire receding into flickers. Instead of destroying the last mirror, he looked into itāand accepted it.
The trial vanished.
Cain awoke to a dull ache in his chest. But his fire, once wild and destructive, now burned with a steady rhythm.
---
š¹ 3. Emra Vienne ā Rank 304, Dorm Nullis
Emra's world was empty.
A hallway stretched endlessly in front of herāgray, lifeless, devoid of noise or movement. At first, she ran. Then she walked. Then crawled. There were no monsters here. No voices.
Just loneliness.
With every step, her self-doubt deepened.
"No one notices me."
"I'll fail like always."
"They'll forget me before the week ends."
Time had no meaning here. She couldn't tell if hours or days had passed. But she continued forward, dragging her feet through the silence. She wanted to scream, but the void stole her voice.
Thenā¦ a mirror appeared ahead.
Her own reflection. Weak, eyes sunken, but still moving.
She raised her hand, and the reflection followed. Then it spokeānot aloud, but in her mind.
"You're still standing. That's something."
And for Emra, that was something.
The illusion faded like mist. And for the first time, she breathed deeply, tears quietly sliding down her cheeks.
She had passedānot through strength or brilliance, but endurance.
---
š Those Who Didn't Wake
Not all examinees emerged from the illusion unscathed.
For some, the test never ended.
ā Failed Candidates
There was a boyāRank Unknownācurled up in a fetal position, whispering the same phrase over and over: "Don't open the doorā¦ don't open the doorā¦"
No one knew what he had seen. Some guessed it was a memory of war. Others said it was his own guilt personified. Either way, he never spoke again after waking, his mind trapped somewhere the illusion had left him.
Another girl, strong by every external metric, had faced a simpler horror: rejection. Her trial had placed her in a world where her best efforts meant nothing, where every path led to failure. She stood before the exitā¦ and chose not to step through. She refused to leave, believing she hadn't earned it. The system logged her as "self-terminated trial."
The instructors called these cases "mental fractures." Some recovered. Others were transferred to healing wards in the lower city. None were ever the same.
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š Instructor's View: Professor Kael Iros
Professor Kael Iros stood at the observation deck, his arms crossed, eyes scanning the holograms projecting each candidate's trial illusion. The other teachers had already turned away, their evaluations complete. But Kael lingered.
He had once been a top hunter. He had seen titans crack mountains in half, mages fall to corruption, and heroes die screaming. But nothing was as intimateāor as terrifyingāas watching a young mind confront its darkest truth.
He adjusted the zoom, focusing on Sam Switzer's final seconds.
Resolve under pressure. Not the fastest, not the strongestābut grounded.
Interesting, Kael thought.
He switched againāto Zeke Greythorne.
So much fear beneath the controlā¦
That boy didn't just face a monster. He faced himself.
And then he looked at the list of those who didn't wake on time. Kael's jaw tightened.
We ask so much of them. Is it justice? Or cruelty wrapped in progress?
He knew the truth: this trial wasn't meant to weed out the weakāit was meant to reveal them. And sometimes, what was revealed couldn't be undone.
Kael turned away at last, his voice low.
> "We claim it's a rite of passage. But in their minds, it's war. And not everyone survives war."
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